Some of you may be aware of the situation with Ravi Zacharias and today, I just wanted to write some of my thoughts. If you study apologetics at all, you know who he is. Apologetics is basically arguments that defend and justify the Christian faith and there was no one better at this than Ravi. He dedicated his life to defending the Christian faith and was a top apologist for over 40 years. Ravi died, due to cancer, almost a year ago. As I have focused diligently on my relationship with Jesus the last 3 years, I have have also followed Ravi and his ministry (Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, RZIM) closely. I am extremely interested in learning apologetics and have literally watched all of Ravi's video's over and over. The guy was like my hero of the faith in our world. I was also scheduled to begin coursework to begin my studies in apologetics at RZIM this past January, but all classes were cancelled until further notice, so I am now attending Biola University. So, I'll jump right in this. Ravi was accused of sexual misconduct by a lady in 2017. After some light investigation and a feeling of, "there's just no way Ravi would do that," from his staff, company/employee's and anyone who knew him, there was a settlement to keep the lady from spreading false statements all over and the situation was over quickly, with everyone believing it was just some lady trying to get money, but seemed to have no hard proof of anything and she felt no one would really believe her anyway. Jump to mid-late 2020 (after Ravi had passed away) and now there are multiple accusations of Ravi being guilty of sexual misconduct. This prompted a thorough investigation of Ravi's behavior and actions. His mobile devices, laptops, software, etc were all confiscated and investigated, along with interviewing at least 50 individuals. Ravi had major back issues, that caused him to get a spinal fusion, a spinal cage and rods and screws in his lower back. He was in continual therapy, even while traveling the world constantly. He owned 2 wellness massage spa centers in Atlanta, where he lived and where his company, RZIM, is located. Long story short regarding the investigation; if all information gathered is accurate, he's definitely guilty of sexual misconduct. These inappropriate actions seemed to primarily have happened in the spas he owned or was invested in, as well as with spa's and masseuses around the world. An official report was released last week and being a part of the "RZIM fam," I was e-mailed the report immediately. If interested, you can find it on the RZIM website. Needless to say, I was crushed when I read the report. There was more than enough evidence to prove that Ravi was guilty of the accusations against him. It's hard to tell how long he had been doing what he was doing, but it was at least over the last 6 years of his life. If investigators had a means to research beyond that, who knows what they would have found? I won't go into all the details, but it was extremely disturbing and I was shocked, heartbroken and disgusted by his actions. I feel horrible for the victims of the crimes, his wife and family, the innocent folks that are employed in his organization and all those who have followed and been a champion of his for so many years. I learned more from listening and watching Ravi than I ever thought possible, as did 1000's and 1000's of others and 1000's and 1000's of individuals gave their lives to Jesus, because of the work he did. I'm not going to throw stones at Ravi or judge him, he's not even alive to defend himself and his judgement already took place. I said I was disgusted and heartbroken with what I read and I am, I'll leave it at that. I believe he is guilty, due to the overwhelming evidence. I still love him in the way I am instructed by God to love my fellow brothers and sisters and I also have forgiveness in my heart toward Ravi. But I am deeply troubled by his actions. I was so stunned and confused when I first heard this news. My heart was literally screaming on the inside, "NO RAVI, NOT YOU, YOU COULDN'T POSSIBLY DO THESE THINGS." Ravi was who I graduated to, when I went from being a high school Christian to being a College level Christian and it was a big leap. I just didn't even know what to think at first about him doing this. But....here is what I do know: - Only one was and will ever be perfect and that is Jesus. I'm not making an excuse for his sin, he is guilty of adultery & sexual immorality, idolatry, lying, stealing, bearing false witness and I'm sure more. I don't know what his internal battle's were and what he had asked for forgiveness for, but Jesus will deal with that, it's certainly not my job. I am disgusted and disheartened by his actions, but I love and forgive him and I am thankful he taught me what he did. Ravi chose the life of being a highly visible representative and disciple of Jesus Christ, so yes, when he does ANYTHING wrong (let alone something of this magnitude), it will be all over the news, media, etc and bring a mountain of dishonor to his family and organization. Think of his organization, this is going to be so difficult to overcome. I pray his organization survives, because I know there are amazing brothers and sisters in RZIM. His poor family. My goodness, how terrible I feel for them, especially his poor wife Margie, to be totally blindsided by all this after her husband dies. - Money, power and fame are all huge targets for satan to attack and that is exactly what he did and they don't have to be in Hollywood. Listen, you can NEVER let your guard down, especially as a Christian, the devil is just waiting to devour you every chance he has. Ravi traveled the world and had his own massage parlors here in the US. It might have all started out innocent, but the devil aligned things perfectly for temptation and Ravi fell to temptation. My guess is that it all turned into something so much bigger than he ever imagined and before he knew it, he was in so deep he felt like he had no way out. And he just wanted more and more. - This was more than adultery and sexual immorality, this was an addiction he had to feed. This meeting women everywhere that were offering themselves to him, going to massage parlors and wondering who it was that he would be with and what they would do to him, what he would tell them to do and how he could gain their trust so they would feel comfortable with him. It's a downward spiral and he was sucked into this before he knew what happened and then it was too late. But, never did he decide to walk away, he decided to keep feeding it, to the point he even opened his own spas and hired his own women. The addiction grew to a point where he probably felt every woman he hired at the spa should do what he says and because of who he is, they would do it and never say a word about it. Disgusting. I also know this: We have to carry our cross daily like the Word says. We have to die to self and surrender to Jesus every single day and put on the full armor of God, every day. If we leave living this life up to our flesh, we will fail. Any of us is capable of sins we never thought we would ever do, I know, I've been there. We can't be Christlike doing things our own way, it is impossible. Understand this, becoming a Christian is easy. Because of God's wonderful and amazing grace, all we have to do is sincerely accept Jesus as our personal Savior, ask the Holy Spirit to live in our hearts, ask Him to forgive us of our sins, repent of our sins and commit to living for Jesus going forward and by Gods grace, you are saved and will spend eternity in Heaven. This doesn't mean life is easy now, if anything, the devil's radar just went up and now you are a target. This doesn't mean you won't get sick and die, you very well might? This doesn't mean you won't lose your job, have family problems, mental issues, physical issues, etc. What it means is that you are never alone, Jesus is walking with you through it all, you will spend eternity with Him in Heaven and we must communicate with Him all day, every day or we will fail and we will struggle through every adversity we face. Prayer does change things, but God's will is God's will and He has a reason for everything He does or doesn't do and for every prayer He answers or doesn't answer. -Lastly, I know this: we can't put our faith in man, only Jesus. Man will let us down over and over, that's just the way it goes. I was as shocked as could be about Ravi. Devastated. Heartbroken. He was truly like my hero of Faith, another Billy Graham to me. I don't believe I idolized Ravi, but I definitely thought very highly of him and never thought I would hear this about him. I was in awe of his intelligence, his eloquence with words, his perfection of arguing the faith with scientist, atheist, agnostics, etc. But, once again, lesson learned.....we can only put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, because He will never leave us or forsake us. He may not always answer things the way we want, but he will answer and he will never leave us. You can be 100% certain that he will never fall to sin, that is impossible for our God to do. Jesus is the only one who is truly righteous. We are MADE righteous by His grace alone, praise the Lord for that. Keep a healthy and understandable fear of God in your lives, but know He loves you more than you will ever understand. Jesus wants an intimate relationship with you, so talk to Him and Pray off and on all day, every day, forever (haven't I said this a few times now?). Don't ever think, "you got this," because you don't.....but you can have it and get through it, with Jesus. Add to
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